Making chocolate

It was rather sad being in our lovely comfy four poster bed and not be able to have a leisurely lie in. We were packed and ready to leave just before 9am. We were literally five minutes drive from Hotel Chocolat. It was a huge brand new concrete built set up, really geared up for a lot of tourists. We had the tour to ourselves and had the friendliest of guides, the lady’s claim to fame was that her daughter had designed the new St Lucia flag. Awkwardly Rowan had mentioned, only a few days ago when hoisting the flag on the boat, what an ugly flag it was! Actually after she explained it to us it made a lot more sense.

The first thing we did was to put a graft onto a cocoa sapling, to increase the yield and reduce the the number of years before it produces a pod from 7 to 5 years. You pay to do this and once you have done it, the tree has your name on it, so you can follow its path to maturity! More importantly they then sell it onto local farmers for $2 EC (50p) instead of $7 EC, basically getting us to do the labour!

It turns out no chocolate is actually made here, it is just where they collect the cocoa pods from all the local farmers, and dry them before shipping them to the UK to be made into chocolate. Apparently the plan is to build a big factory here. So after a little walk to look at some cocoa trees growing in the grounds we returned to the restaurant area to make some chocolate. It was a very nice airy space under a big sail type ceiling, with different stalls in brightly painted shipping containers. The chocolate making took a huge amount of bashing in a very hot mortar with a heavy pestle to bash the cocoa nibs. Rowan did very well, but clearly I was flagging as a guide came to take over for a bit, only after about 5 minutes. It suddenly all turns into a paste in the hot mortar, you add the cocoa butter and sugar, continuing to stir for ages to get it to a velvety consistency, and then pour it into your little mould. It was good fun and the guides were very knowledgeable. While the chocolate set we had a very good lunch, and then were ushered to the retail section! Much to Rowan’s horror as it was hugely expensive prices, and very little chocolate to buy! You can imagine Rowan’s blood boiling as they were selling chocolate infused wine, beer, gin, you name it, but only two types of chocolate, plain and dark. No variations of sea salt, nuts, coffee or anything else, which was disappointing as we thought we might stock up for Easter! We got our chocolate moulds and finally left just before 1pm when their next tour group was arriving.

The various stages of a cocoa pod

The pods all come from this tiny flower

Lovely trees in the walk around the cocoa plantations

On our way over yesterday we had spotted a sign to one of the World’s largest drive through Volcanoes, so we decided to check it out. it was only another 5 minutes down the road. Suddenly we could smell it, the rotten egg sulphur smell. Just like when we passed Soufriere in St Vincent. I had also got a whiff at Hotel Chocolat and had suspected their new ablution block!

We got to the entrance and we were only allowed to drive through if we took a guide, we had a very entertaining lady guide us around, all of 10 minutes. The volcano last erupted in the 1700’s which was reassuring. The caldera is enormous, and the bubbling cauldrons are terrifyingly hot.

That far ridge in the distance is the edge of the caldera

We drove back to Rodney bay, enjoying passing these quaint towns knowing we were coming back to explore them by boat.

We both felt very happy to be back on PolePole and got plenty of chores done as we leave tomorrow. Loads of laundry to do when we can use marina water and shore power.